MOSCOW, April 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Kremlin presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov wrote a letter to his namesake who had been denied the right to buy sneakers in an American online shop because of the U.S. sanctions against Russian officials.

“Dear namesake and fellow citizen! I was surprised to find out that the sanctions imposed by the U.S. administration, including against me, have created certain inconveniencies for you. Your parcel was delayed and the U.S. Post showed that it could place ignorance and corporate zeal above elementary logic. We may face such farce again as there are tens of thousands of Sergei Ivanovs in the country. But I am sure that we will overcome these inconveniencies together. Besides, your case gave us a good example of how even the worst American sanctions can be bypassed,” the Kremlin official wrote in his letter, the Rossiya 1 television channel said on Saturday, April 5.

A Metro newspaper employee in St. Petersburg by the name of Sergei Ivanov had ordered a pair of sneakers in an American online shop, but his order was cancelled. The shop provided him with a notice saying that his last name, name and surname had been included in the list of persons who could not be sent any mail in the United States. He was erroneously taken for his namesake Sergei Ivanov from the Kremlin administration. To solve the problem, the order was made again in a new name and eventually delivered to Russia.